State Farm lawsuit: Bossier City auto repair shop owner shares his story

State Farm lawsuit: Bossier City auto repair shop owner shares his story

"Many of us in the auto collision repair industry for years have been dealing with situations like this..."

A Bossier City repair shop owner reacts to a lawsuit against State Farm Insurance for unsafe practices.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell.

It alleges State Farm used scare tactics to steer Louisiana consumers to preferred repair shops, then forced those shops to perform repairs cheaply and quickly, instead of safely.

In a news release, Caldwell says, “In some cases, we’ve found that these parts are nothing more than used junk yard parts. In others, we’ve found them to be foreign knock-off parts of questionable quality.”

Kevin Adams, Owner of Krystal Auto Collision says agents with State Farm, and other insurance companies, didn’t care about quality.

"Many of us in the auto collision repair industry for years have been dealing with situations like this with insurance companies and we're glad to see the attorney general come up, step up, and do something to protect the consumers on safety, so we can all do a safe and quality repair," says Adams.

Krystal Auto Collision has been open since 1994, and Adams says some insurance agents wanted have tried to bully him and underpay him for years.

"I've had many insurance companies state that they will not pay for certain procedures that it takes to repair a vehicle that they don't feel it's necessary," says Adams.

Caldwell says his office has discovered hundreds of violations since investigating in March.

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